Intelligence Squared How Tech Platforms Threaten Our Future, With Former White House Advisor Tim Wu (Part One)
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Dec 31, 2025 
In this conversation, Tim Wu, a Columbia Law School professor and former White House advisor, unpacks the dangers posed by powerhouse tech companies in the AI economy. He explains how these platforms, likened to historical monopolies, threaten innovation and democracy. Wu argues for breaking up tech monopolies to unleash creativity and ensure they serve public interests. He also reflects on the shift from internet idealism to profit-driven pressures, illustrating the importance of alternative models like Wikipedia's non-advertising structure.
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Platforms Are The New Public Places
- Platforms are the modern 'places' where speech, commerce and civic life happen and they shape civilization.
- Tim Wu warns that most important spaces have become privately owned and profit-driven, changing public life.
Legal Roots: Innkeepers' Public Duties
- Tim Wu recounts a 15th–16th century case where a woman sued after being thrown out of an inn and won.
- The ruling created a common-law idea that some private businesses have public duties when they hold themselves out to the public.
Platform Monopolies Extract From Every Transaction
- Platform monopolies combine intermediary power with the ability to extract from both sides of a market.
- Wu describes this as a new form of power akin to a private government taking a 'private tax' on transactions.